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Government urges AGI to provide data
to enhance business
Accra, Sept. 19, Ghanadot - In the need to drive up
business, Government has urged the Association of Ghanaian
Industries (AGI) to regard the churning out of reliable data
as a means to enhance the business climate in the country.
Speaking at the launch of the 2007 AGI Business Climate
Survey, Mr Kwadwo Baah-Wiredu said any government that
ignored such information from the survey, did so at its own
risk and, “we must make full use of the report, especially
at the national, regional and district levels. Otherwise we
stand the risk of losing out on the development of a very
important sector of our economy.”
He urged Chief Directors and Directors of all government
institutions to give the Survey the due attention to bring
about the needed change which it was intended to achieve.
Examining the Survey, Mr. Baah-Wiredu said it was quite
refreshing and government has taken the lessons from the
survey.
The Finance and Economic Planning Minister said it was an
unfortunate situation the country was facing the energy
crisis but that government was on top of the situation.
“What we must do is to get our
engineers to ensure that never again do we have to allow
this to happen arguing that it is not industry and the
manufacturing sector alone that suffered during the major
load shedding exercise, but homes and dislocation of social
lives.”
In this direction, he explained that engineers were working
around the clock to ensure that the change required was
effectively secured over the short to medium term.
On the need to improve access to funds, Mr Baah-Wiredu said
credit was key to providing the fuel to move industry and
“we need to do more than what we have done now. But our
banking and finance sectors must be up and doing and be
counted among the high performers.”
He called for continuous dialogue between government and the
private sector, adding that, it was important for confidence
and trust to be built between borrowers and creditors.
He said last year 657 billion dollars was transferred out of
developing countries into developed economies, questioning
why this must be so when the reverse was needed.
“The time has come for us to reinforce the issues and get
moving forward.
The AGI 2007 Business Climate Survey said the prolonged
national load shedding programme weighed down the confidence
of businesses in all sectors adding that competition from
imported goods was a major concern, especially for the
manufacturing industry.
Mr Tony Oteng-Gyasi, President of the AGI said access to
land was still a major challenge for trade and the service
sector, noting that several government proposals including
the creation of land banks were yet to come to fruition,
making the issue of land quite dire.
He said businessmen want a simplified tax code instead of
the current one which required so much to be done and noting
that businessmen were not keen on always going to court and
would prefer a simplified system where charges and fees were
paid.
Mr Agyeman Manu, Deputy Minister of Trade, Industry and
Private Sector Development and Presidential Special
Initiatives said the Ministry had started implementing the
trade sector policy programme, under which the small medium
enterprises would be given priority.
Source, GNA
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